The Real Meaning of Prince's "Little Red Corvette"

The song by Prince, "Little Red Corvette" has been a favorite of mine for many years. I listened to the words from almost the very beginning of its release in 1983. The meaning was pretty much straight forward to me since the singer and songwriter is known for his risqué lyrics. It was Prince's first big hit song that rocketed him to star status.

Jump ahead to 1990 when I met Lindy who had just started to work where I did. During one of our first lunch breaks together she showed me her pride and joy, a 1978 red Corvette. I had to ask the loaded question "why red?" and she told me that it was because of the song "Little Red Corvette". She loved that song. I then asked her if she knew what the song was about and she said, "sure I do, it's about a car!"

Poor Lindy was about as true as a blond as you could get. She was sharp as a tack when it came to work related matters but dumb as a door knob when common sense should have been there. Apparently she never really bothered to really listen to the lyrics of the song. I asked her what she thought the song lyric meant when Prince sang "a pocket full of Trojans". She merely thought of horsepower and related to me the story of the Trojan horse. I just shook my head and I told her to listen to the lyrics closely when she heard the song the next time.

Lindy heard the song a few days later on the radio we had in our work area. You should have seen her eyes get big when she found out it was about a "fast woman" and not a car. She still loved her car but never felt the same way about the song after that. She even told me once, "I wish you hadn't told me about the song, I was blissfully happy while I was ignorant".

I still enjoy the song because it has a nice sound and a good beat. In fact I probably enjoy a lot of songs that have questionable lyrics, I just never listened that close to them. I find myself sometimes acting like Lindy - blissfully ignorant.

An odd fact about the song:
Stevie Nicks heard the song and it inspired her to write "Stand Back".

Since it would be a violation to list the full lyrics here of "The Little Red Corvette" they can be found on the MTV site page here